Bay 12 Games Forum

Oh man that one response left so much to unpack. Instead of providing evidence of the issue in our community you provided evidence of the issue with yourself.

You know what’s crazy about “player applications”? The fact that they get used in limited-player games so people actually need to put an ounce of effort into claiming the few spots available. They’re there to give a gm an idea of what they’ll be playing with and give them a chance to curate the experience.

Are team sports bullying because there are backup and third string players that want to be first up but aren’t quite at that skill level? Is trying to get a job bullying because you have to submit applications? Do people having preferences for what they want to do mean they’re exclusionary and forming cliques?

The answer to all of that is a solid no.


Your worry about “throwing someone under the bus” is painfully misplaced. I dunno if you think we have rifles ready to blast holes into whoever wronged you, but we don’t. We’re literally just asking for evidence, and you’re making it the most painful, drawn out questioning process outside of a gulag. I don’t know how coming to terms with something would be affected by “throwing someone under the bus” after the fact, either.

Unless you actually prove otherwise, I’m just going to assume you were excluded for no malicious reasons and decided you could use another hill to die on.

Ninja’s: this is even more ridiculous if the exclusion was the direct result of your own actions.

Just provide some proof that what you keep railing about is actually a thing here, my guy.

Boarding Shuttles (B) is Normal. That's a pretty solid average upgrade at your current capabilities.

The PEVSK is Theoretical. This is a shift from "revising the voidsuit to be slightly more reliable" to "medic" with no real source for any of the "medic" part of the revision. Now, if you were to revise something like that onto a specific unit to give them a medic it would probably be a Normal endeavor. Infantry-scale equipment is heavily impacted by how widespread it is intended to be. This can be offset, as in real life, with money!

Decent Freighters is Easy, since while there's a nice little bit of overhaul going on, a little expansion of crew quarters and the addition of a bootleg medbay does pair well with increasing pressurized areas of the ship. It might get a little cramped, but that'd largely be up to the roll. Keeping the cargo bay unpressurized also helps a lot in simplifying the work being done.

Aftermarket Gun Mods is invalid for a revision. It's too deep of a bag of tricks you could pull out of to be anything other than a design.

Boarding Skiff Mk.2 is Normal. It feels like it's close to the Hard line for some reason, but really bungee cords and holes in the walls aren't, like, actually difficult things at all.

Once is luck. Twice is a coincidence. Three times, well, that's a trend. The Baobabi's skill at crafts is abundantly clear even in these early days. Anything the Baobabi have pulled from nature they have been able to bend and shape to their will, not just with ease, but with style as well. So it goes with the Clay taken from Great Baobab. One of the Major Founders (NUKE9.13 +2I) was quite...creative in his handling of clay, enough so that it inspired the creation of tools for the task and yet another shift in Baobabi society. But we're going to come back to him.

After figuring out they could cook clay beads in an open firepit, one Baobabi craftswoman tried to start a firepit within her home. This went okay at first, but she quickly became overwhelmed by the heat within her domicile. She left to get some water and came back to a burning, well, pit, where her Pit Home once stood. While devastated by the loss of a home, the idea that an enclosed area would keep in the heat of a fire was a huge discovery for the Baobabi. Knowing clay, unlike wood, could withstand a little bit of fire, an attempt was made at an enclosure constructed of rectangular sun-baked clay bricks. A dome was crafted out of the bricks with a pair of holes at the base on opposing sides. One hole was smaller, and allowed the craftswoman to start a fire and add fuel as needed, and the other hole let the Baobabi load wet clay objects into the kiln. Both holes could be covered by nearby rocks. A small opening at the top worked out in the Baobabi's favor, allowing smoke to escape from the kiln. Of course, smoke was also escaping from all the spaces in between the bricks, so a thick layer of clay and mud was slathered across the entire structure. After seeing amazing success in the volume of clay works the craftswoman was pouring out, other villagers took inspiration from her and constructed their own kilns, and eventually they were making them out of fired bricks made in other kilns. These fired bricks were brittle but sturdy, and there were sure to be plenty of uses for this building block. The Baobabi villages marked their first step into industrial work with the smoke of the kilns rising above their homes.

New Technology: Kiln-fired Bricks (Clay bricks baked at high temperature. Sturdy, brittle material. Can be used in new advancements at an appropriate Clay cost. Requires a funded kiln-like technology)
New Technology: Brick Kilns (Allows refinement of various materials thanks to high heat. Requires 1 Clay Upkeep)

The Founder who'd been shaping clay by hand was struck by assistant-fueled inspiration (which is to say, took all the credit for their idea) and utilized a flat cutout of a tree trunk balanced on a round-top stone. Once centered and balanced correctly in a divot in the wood, one craftsman would mold the clay while another kept the wheel rotating at a relatively consistent speed. Using two moistened hands and a spinning mound of clay a craftsman could fairly quickly create rounded objects. Some of the first things spun on the wooden wheel were wide, flat-bottomed, narrow-necked pots, so it became known as the Potter's Wheel. The potter's wheel, much like the kiln, greatly increased the speed and efficiency with which clay objects could be constructed. With less time needed for every aspect of pottery, craftspeople of the Baobab decided quality would be their focus over quantity (although increased quantity still very much happened). Sticks and stones were used to impress shapes onto clay objects, and "glazing" rapidly developed as wood ash from the kilns occasionally modified the clay products within. This became a more regular practice after the cause of glazing was discovered thanks to the appeal of the earthy green and deep brown color the glaze left on the clay. A wash was made of ash and water and applied prior to firing via a brush of wildebeest hairs bound by a string and allowed craftsfolk the ability to apply their own desired amount of glaze to specific parts of their crafts. Overall, Baobabi Pottery was extremely intricate and beautiful for the time.

New Technology: Potter's Wheel (Increases quality and quantity of clay handcrafts. Proves a wheel shape can actually be useful)
New Technology: Baobabi Pottery (A preem premium trade good unique to the Baobabi. Requires access to Clay and a funded kiln-like technology)

Baobabi pottery wasn't just used for decoration and showing off, however. Baobabi villagers had adopted them for food storage and could close the pots with a piece of wildebeest hide cinched closed around the neck with a thick string. This meant a heavily reduced reliance on the environment for survival overall, even if portions were being removed from village stores for personal keeping.

New Technology: Food Pots (Decreases Baobabi reliability on the land for food and keeps food safer, allowing them to expand further. +1 Range to All Settlement Borders. Requires 1 Food Upkeep and a funded pottery technology)

A curious Baobabi adolescent stole away with a pot one day and swore to his friends he would do the impossible - he would catch The Guiding Smoke. He told his friends and one day they all managed to sneak off to a Fumic Vent. The boy stood at the edge of the fuming hole shaking with excitement, anticipation, and a lot of fear. What would happen once he tried to catch the smoke? Would it break the pot? Would he get lifted off into the sky as long as he held on? He shot his arms outward holding an upturned pot, and felt...very little. The fumes billowed into and around his arms as he stepped back and tipped the vessel for his friends to see. A small puff of fumes leaked out and rose northward. They hastily secured some wildebeest hide over the mouth and ran back home to show everyone what they'd done.

Afraid at first of the potential harm the boy could have caused, eventually when the sky did not fall the adults of the village conceded that the child had a bold and brilliant idea they could put to use. The tribe began collecting Magnetofumes in pots and could utilize them to find their way anywhere they went with one. These Way-Finding Pots proved to be immensely useful for those that traveled afar, allowing them to correctly identify their heading and greatly reduce the chances of getting lost.

New Technology: Way-Finding Pots (Stores Magnetofumes that can be leaked out to see which way is north. +1 Exploration Range. Requires 1 Magnetofumes Upkeep and a funded pottery technology)

With an abundance of new crafts and creations, the small amount of trade that occurred between villagers who desired things from one another blossomed. People began to trade goods and services with great regularity. While bartering was nothing new to the Baobabi, it was becoming a way of life for them. Everything you did had value, and everything you needed had value, so it only made sense to figure out what different parties wanted in order find a mutually agreeable value to benefit the whole. If for some reason they'd have to interact with an outside force, this would surely be a solid foundation for diplomacy and inter-civilization trade.

New Technology: Bartering (A means of trade that can provide opportunities for interaction with external forces)


With the passing of a new age during this turn cycle (right at the end in the experiment phase, AGAIN, don't know if you're aware) the three Major Founders gain 1 Prestige. Yes that was copied and pasted from the last one. Unlike last time, the Major Founders are due for a shake-up! Representing the last of the three original Major Founders standing at the top, m1895 has lost his position to Quarque after having his Influence surpassed. What will the future bring the People of The Baobab?


It is now the Exploration Phase. Remember that you can either choose to explore up to four connected areas (thanks to Waterskins, Pack Wildebeest, and Way-Finding Pots) or propose new equipment or technology that would facilitate improved exploration in some way. You may also choose to explore specific points of interest for more details on them (like the cringe hole Cave Hole). Note that until Way-Finding Pots are funded, this is the only turn in which you will benefit from them.

GM Note: Before anyone asks, if Russia can claim control over land it's got no capacity to hold, so can you.

Voidsuit Field Patch is Trivial. Just needs a little r&d to make sure the duct tape materials are up to the job.

Patchwork Freighter Crew Expansion and Sickbay is Very Easy. A couple small improvements and reassignments is no big issue.

Boarding Shuttles is Hard largely due to the shift of cockpit, honestly.

Pointman is at the upper end of Hard, what with the new weapon and "training" involved.

Skiff Roll Cage and Dummy HMG is also at the upper end of Hard entirely due to the .50. It'd probably see at least Easy without it.

Basic Freighters come up around Very Easy. There's more overall structural change with Basic than the Crew Expansion and there's some system fixing up in this one, but it doesn't actually install any new significant rooms so it doesn't shift the difficulty.

Slow Cooking Heat Management is Easy. The system rework isn't insignificant but it's still only a singular system.

Basic Market Analysis is Trivial. Literacy isn't uncommon among piratey types anymore, and there's plenty of resources out there to do some basic market analysis. All you need to do is find someone who won't get bored into "early retirement".

With more and more things demanded by the growth of society, it was inevitable that steps would be taken to improve the Baobabi's work potential. Under the guidance of a Major Founder (Powder Miner +1I), a basic sort of work structure was developed that organized villagers working on similar tasks into groups. Each group, such as Herb Gatherers, Tree Cutters, and Water Carriers just to name a few, chose a representative from within their ranks to represent them in discussions with the other representatives. These regular village meetings were used to better organize the rotation of tasks based on who was available and what was needed where. As time went on both the Stakehome and Great Baobab groups began to coordinate, leading to the loose organization of large work forces dedicated to specific fields of tasks.

New Technology: Organized Labor Force (Allows +1 Exploited Resource when Exploiting during Exploitation Phases)

Manual labor was always a "thing" in early society, but the Baobabi truly embraced it. Many of the population sought to serve their family and their tribe, and hard work was often the easiest way to do so. The Baobabi began to drift towards more industrious, diligent mindsets (since the alternative was starvation, but at least theirs is a shift out of willingness and not necessity). A day of hard work was a good day, and nothing made a fireside celebration feel more deserved than a coating of sweat drawn out from beneath a merciless sun. When it comes to improving their situation and environment, the Baobabi are willing to set to work as soon as physically possible.

New Technology: Industrious Workers (Allows new SETTLEMENTS to auto-Exploit 1 Resource)

With a multitude of generations come and gone since first settling the Baobabi Savannah, the importance knowledge spread by word of mouth had become fully realized. Taking influence from the Seedkeepers and Woodsongs, each "profession" developed songs and spoken word to verbalize and memorize aspects of their field. While each job benefited from generational learning, none was as impacted as Societal Herbalism - nor did anything have as rebounding an impact on the rest of society. Dedicated Herbalists took note of absolutely everything they thought could influence the growth of herbs and passed it on, letting trial, error, and time filter out fact from fantasy. One particular group of herbalists took to charting the skies in an effort to glean what effects the lights in the darkness could mean. They identified clusters of stars using objects of similar (loosely interpreted) shape that they were familiar with and tracked their paths over the course of years. Tales were told by Herbalists of how The Hunter woke and prepared for his Hunt each day, of how The Hunter followed The Antelope and fed off of their bounty during the Warm Season, or of the appearance of The Lion marking The Hunter's need to keep low as well as the start of the Cool Season. The Moon did not escape personification either, being the primary body in the night sky. The Moon was associated with Death, a skull spinning in the sky, dangling above the earth as the skulls in The Baobab of Bones. The association with death isn't a bad thing, as death is accepted as generally something that happens.

Regardless of what the contents of the stories were, they all interpreted the positions of stars and planets into a semiaccurate means of charting seasons of all types.

New Technology: Skytales (Early Baobabi Astrology, used to chart the time of year. Can be a foundation for many things) 


It is now the Exploitation Phase. Remember that you can choose TWO resources to begin exploiting, or propose a development that would facilitate or build upon your ability to gather, identify, or otherwise interact with the resources of the world around you.

Proposal: Boarding Party Breachers
Difficulty: Normal
Result: 4+1=5, Below Average

There's one job every team trying to breach a ship is going to need, and that is someone to do the breaching. One member of the boarding party is given a bag full of shaped charges and some basic instruction on how to use them without killing themselves (immediately). The charges aren't as powerful as some of the Buccaneers would like, but they can be wired into a series for similar effect. The focused blasts of the charges should reliably penetrate most non-military hulls.

Breachers also get the latest in homebrewed Buccaneer equipment: the Short-Barrel Coil Shotgun. Made with close-quarters boarding actions in mind, the double-barrel break action 12 gauge "sawn-off" shotgun fires discarding sabot flechettes capable of puncturing light armor.

Breachers also take on the role of mentor, adopting a rookie into the unit to act as an apprentice and battle buddy, and definitely not a meat shield or glorified backpack.

Paint is handed out to boarding parties to personalize their equipment and, if they want, add some identifiers to reduce the risk of friendly fire. "Born to Kill" is a particularly popular decoration for helmets.

Boarding Party Breachers are integrated into the Boarding Party and can be utilized in the creation of other units as-is without a significant influence on difficulty.


Proposal: Great Work Freighters
Difficulty: Normal (for thoroughness' sake, this was around the high end of Normal)
Result: 6+4=10, Superior

Why reinvent the rectangle? Great Work Freighters are largely pressurized transport ships bearing a similar profile to the Patchwork Freighters in the Arrrmada presently. A larger crew allows for more specialization in tasks, improving crew efficiency across the board in relation to the Patchworks. Thicker armor plating meant to withstand attacks from smaller ship-caliber munitions, lower-intensity energy weapons, and smaller explosions is bolted onto the hull of the ship to improve its survivability (and the survivability of the crew as a result). The nose and tail of the ship get a nice 40mm coilgun turret, with the tail gun being set off-center due to the need for engines to belong there.

Airlocks in each ladderway greatly reduce the damage a breaching shot would have on a pressurized ship, isolating decompression to the impacted deck. Automatic fire suppression systems are also installed to, well, suppress fires on pressurized decks. In a final act of improving survivability, sets of emergency life rafts are hung from the ceiling of the cargo bay. These rafts are even less of a vehicle than the Boarding Skiffs, providing the crew with a platform with a small chemical engine to drift around on until someone with a ship that hasn't been destroyed comes by.

Great Work Freighters are fairly easy ships to throw together and maintain, made even easier by the fact that we just refitted the ships we had available.

Great Work Freighters are Common with a Unit Size 4. Being direct improvements of the Patchwork Freighters, the Great Works are capable of pushing them into [Obsolescence]. Instead of just having useless ships sitting around, should you decide to have them go unused, you can instead scrap them similarly to captured ships to receive a one-time income of Materials and/or Fuel.


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Space is fun and all, but everyone needs solid earth to come home to. It helps when you can pretend that home is a tropical paradise. The Black Hole Buccaneers made their home among the sweltering desert islands and dense jungles that littered the planet, with their base of operations and Laneripper strategically built seated deep within a dead volcano and largely protected from the elements. This volcano also offered a bountiful supply of materials to use for synthesizing craft and equipment, giving the band the ability to move out of their spacecraft and into actual shelters in record time. It was a good solid place to use as a raider's haven, definitely hard to find and even harder to attack.

Planetary Base: 1 Free Material Use/Turn


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It is now the Revision Phase. You can vote for two Revisions, which are actions that modify, create variants of, improve, or otherwise are based off of equipment that exists in your armory. As with the Design Phase, I will be providing feedback on proposals. Along with voting on your two proposals, you are also tasked with deciding on the following question:


Piracy is business, and the most successful players in the black market know when a good investment opportunity shows up. Why would someone want to prop up a band of pirates? Well, there's a million simple answers for that. How is one of these shadowy businessmen supporting your efforts?

A: Money, obviously. It's what makes everything move (figuratively). Some refer to money as the "meta" of our universe, and that would be a correct assumption for a pirate. The faction produces 1 Wealth for use each turn. The wealth from this bonus will not be stockpiled, and will be used before stockpiled wealth.

B: Fuel. It's what makes everything move (literally). In a cold, unforgiving universe, it's always nice to know you can get where you gotta go and then back home. The faction produces 1 Fuel for use each turn. The fuel from this bonus will not be stockpiled, and will be used before stockpiled fuel.

C: Armor. It's what you use to keep people from making your people stop moving. Your boarding teams replace their voidsuits with Boarding Suits. Light armor is added to protect vital regions (including a reinforced faceplate), and integrated back thrusters allow controlled movement in space while magnetic soles and gloves can be activated to secure oneself to the side of a ship. You can get these supplies on-demand, so they can be used for any of your combat-oriented Crew until you come up with something better to replace it.